Unqualified staff are being used deliberately by schools as cheap alternatives to qualified teachers, according to a survey by the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union.

Over half (53%) of the over 7,000 respondents said they were working alongside unqualified staff. This number rose to 61% in academies.

Most respondents (65%) said they felt the situation was deteriorating because schools were unwilling or unable to pay for qualified teachers.

68% of respondents said that unqualified staff had been employed because their school had decided to take advantage of the Coalition Government’s decision to abolish the requirement for schools to employ qualified teachers.

The latest survey found evidence of unqualified staff performing duties such as:

· planning and preparing lessons (81%). This figure rose to 85% in academies;

· assessing and monitoring pupils’ progress and achievements (76%). This figure rose to 83% for teachers in academies.

Representatives at the NASUWT’s Annual Conference in Birmingham will today denounce the Coalition Government’s attack on the professional status of teachers, during the debate on a motion which calls for the reintroduction of a statutory requirement for qualified teacher status in all schools.

Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:

“These figures demonstrate the scale of the problem across all schools which has been created by the Coalition Government.

“Parents no longer have the certainty of knowing that when they send their children to school they will be taught by a qualified teacher.

“Our children and young people have been robbed of a fundamental entitlement to be taught by qualified teachers.

“The decision to remove qualified teacher status had nothing to do with raising standards and everything to do with reducing costs, depressing teachers’ pay and feeding the free market.”